Raj Von Badlo, otherwise known as Raj Shastri, has been sentenced to a total of two years in jail for his part in an investment scam.

Shastri, who set out his stall as a buy-to-let guru and gave numerous, expensive, seminars on how to make millions from property, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Friday.

The former buy-to-let “expert” who had been with the since disgraced Inside Track, had pleaded guilty to making false representations to investors and promoting a collective investment scheme without authorisation.

Shastri’s co-defendant Alex Hope received a seven-year jail sentence for leading a foreign exchange rip-off, enticing over 100 investors to entrust him with over £5.5m.

Only 12% of the money given to Hope was ever traded and when Hope did trade, he lost almost all of the money.

It was Shastri’s promotion of the scam that lured most of the investment money in. As a result of his activities, over 75 investors handed £4.29m over to Hope.

Hope used over £2m of investors’ money to fund his lifestyle. He spent over £1m in a casino, over £200,000 on designer watches and shoes, £60,000 on foreign travel, and over £600,000 in bars and nightclubs in London, Miami and New York.

In March 2012, Hope made headlines when, aged 23 and describing himself as a City whizz kid, he spent more than £200,000 on a single round of drinks, including an £18,540 tip. He told newspapers at the time that he had earned a fortune by trading foreign currencies.

Hope was arrested in April 2012. The following month, Shastri’s house was searched and he was arrested.

Shastri was a very well known figure in buy-to-let circles, speaking at various investor events.

Only last February Shastri told would-be investors that he had built up a multi-million pound property empire within five years, as reported here

He said no work was required, other than five minutes to check that the rent goes into your bank account each month.

Shastri was not shy of self-promotion, often posing with a flash car in front of an expensive house, said to be his home in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, as here

He also appeared in a 2009 article about ‘property prophets’ on PrimeLocation here

In 2012, the forum Property Tribes had this to say about him: “Raj Shastri, the Inside Track guru, told us not so long ago that he is no longer involved in property and that he had exited his portfolio! He was into Forex Trading and speaking at property events to get people involved in this new money-spinning scheme.”

Shastri went bankrupt last year, according to the London Gazette which named him in a notice of a creditors’ meeting as Raj Von Badlo (aka Raj Shastri, aka Ra Paull).

Here he is displaying the outward trappings of his apparent wealth: